A Ukrainian drone interceptor cleaned the skies, and took out Russian Orion UAV at an altitude of 5,500 meters.

From Shahed to Geran:

‘This report examines the case of Iran’s role in developing Russian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or drone) production capability, which Russia is using to wage its war in Ukraine’.

c4ads.org/wp-content/u...

1/ In run-up to SDR, UK has announced a new "Cyber and Electromagnetic Command". Temptation is to focus on offensive tasks. What MoD says is that it will "lead defensive cyber operations" for military networks and "coordinate" offensive ones with the National Cyber Force, which was set up in 2020.

The most interesting bit here is that the best Western gov cyber outfits overhauled their operational approach after the mid-10s to focus more on avoiding detection.

The era of the "factory ops" was too risky with the rise of threat intel.

Harder to reliably spot 2025's Regin, Careto, Flame, etc

Schaut. Euch. Das. An.

Interesting observations on ‘OSINT’:

“SPEED VS ACCURACY
Nico Dekens, aka Dutch Osint Guy, an open source intelligence consultant and trainer, reckons social media has made OSINT a game of who is first, rather than who is factually accurate”. m.economictimes.com/news/india/l...

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz: "If you say you love freedom, but you don't think freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn't freedom, it's privilege."

CNBC's Steve Liesman doesn't mince words about the way the White House calculated its tariff rates:

"Nobody ever heard of this formula. Nobody has ever used this formula. So I’m sorry, but the conclusion seems to be the president kind of made this up as he went along... these are off the charts."

Why all of this matters.....

Google's Threat Intelligence Group confirmed that several Russia state-aligned threat actors were working to compromise and target Signals users who were "individuals of interest" and had deployed multiple phishing campaigns.
t.co/zuOU9y2Udf

Russian Orlan reconnaissance UAVs have radio receivers that detect any system that emits radio signals up to 30GHz.
These include air defense radar signals including Patriot, and counter-battery radars.
Also EW jammers are detected, and even Starlink signals below them.
1/

After arming FPV drones with shotguns, Ukraine now testing a drone armed with an unguided aviation rocket.

You've truly arrived at your thirties when you realise you're getting a buzz every time the FT publishes an interactive story. They never miss. ig.ft.com/baltic-sea/

“That’s the problem with transparency,” says Mr Voloskyi. “You can see actions, but you don’t necessarily correctly interpret them.” www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Zum Jahreswechsel möchte ich noch einmal das Wort an Sie und Euch richten. Machen wir 2025 zu einem guten Jahr! Das wünsche ich Ihnen und uns von ganzem Herzen.

Zur ganzen Rede: youtu.be/TstYjL1K27Y

🇫🇮 Police released a photo of the boarding of #EagleS

Text is vibrant as always:
"two officials on the deck"

If you’re looking to catch up on scholarly work on Syria, I’ve posted a number of reading lists over the years. Here’s one, featuring Ora Szekely’s Syria Divided and Dipali Mukhopadhyay & Kimberly Howe’s Good Rebel Governance plus another ten for background.

abuaardvark.substack.com/p/wrestling-...

The new NYT piece on China's supply chain strategy reveals how Beijing is rewriting the rules of economic warfare. Trump's claim that "China pays for tariffs" fundamentally misunderstands modern economic power. Here's why: 1/

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/b...